However the British Government might justify in terms the impressment of seamen from American ships, or the delay of atonement for such an insult as that of the Chesapeake, the nation which endured the same, content with reams of argument instead of blow for blow, had sunk beneath contempt as an inferior race, to be cowed and handled without gloves by those who felt themselves the masters.

It was her practice to fill up her navy, in part at least, by the "impressment" of her sailor folk, taking them whenever needed, and wherever found -- in her own coast towns, or from the decks of her own mercantile marine.

Stephens, on the other hand, was adamantly opposed to the Mexican-American War and, while Vice President of the Confederacy, opposed conscription, suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, impressment among other things.